


Like I've Never Known

by flippednique



Series: First Love [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Confessions, First Dates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-19 12:11:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15509583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flippednique/pseuds/flippednique
Summary: “I think I like someone.” Connor starts, lifting his gaze ever so slightly. “I think I like you.”Mitchell blinks at him, his long and dark lashes caressing pale cheeks. “Come again?”





	1. The One With The Confession

It takes some maneuvering but Mitchell manages to knock on the Hermes’ cabin door twice, count to ten, and then knock again, but thrice this time, just like Connor had asked him when he had first come over. They did not want a repeat of the incident that they would never ever mention again, Hades forbid! 

The door’s thrown open and the son of Aphrodite is left staring at a widely grinning brunette with flyaway curls and a grease stain on his cheek. “You’re here!”

“I said I would be.” Mitchell shrugs his shoulders, or tries, while carrying an extremely heavy potted plant in his hands. “Katie asked me to bring this over here.”

“Looks heavy.” Connor notes leisurely.

“A bit, yeah.” Mitchell huffs as a lock of black hair fell over his eyes. “Um, Connor. Could you maybe…?”

“Oh.” Connor easily lifts the plant into his own arms. “Needed some help?”

“I don’t usually lug stuff around. I mean, I do have arm strength from archery but that thing is heavy.” Mitchell stretches his arms out, trying to get blood flowing now that they were free. He follows Connor into the Hermes cabin, careful to step where the other boy did and making a thoughtful sound when Connor places the pot down on the side of Travis’ bed. “A little dark for a plant there, don’t you think?”

“That’s the point.” Connor says gesturing to the general area. “It’s dark here, the plant livens it up with all this green!”

“Connor, plants kind of need light to live.”

The son of Hermes gives Mitchell a dubious look. “They do?”

“Uh huh, especially big leafy plants like this. It’s the photo part of photosynthesize.” Mitchell skirts around Connor and heaves the plants to rest on top of the generous sill by the window. “There, all lighted up.”

“I don’t get it. I just thought plants would naturally synthesize.”

Mitchell adjusts the pot a bit. “They kinda need the photo part to start.”

“None of the plants I ever had needed light.” Connor gestures to his bunk nestled in an even darker corner than Travis’.

“That might explain why they’re all dead.”

“Oh.” Connor winces then sends Mitchell a sheepish look. “Don’t tell Travis or Katie I almost killed their latest plant-baby.”

“I won’t.” Mitchell promises with a laugh then gestures to Connor’s face. “You’ve got a little something on there.”

Connor makes a dismissive gesture with one hand that’s jerky and nervous at best, the other rubbing at his cheek. “I’m really glad you’re here.”

“Figured you needed to tell me something. I mean, you never ask to be alone unless you need to talk things out.” Mitchell makes himself comfortable on Connor’s bed, sitting with his legs crossed underneath him, his elbows propped on them and his face settled in his hands. “Now, what’s on your mind? Tell Mitchell all about it.”

Connor smiles at him, slightly more at ease, and sinks down to sit on the floor where he begins to pick at the rug strands underneath him. He’s looking at anywhere but Mitchell and it takes him a moment to say what’s on his mind.

Mitchell waits for him patiently with an encouraging smile on his lips, mentally preparing himself. Maybe it was about a prank he did that he was now kind of feeling guilty for. Whatever it was that Connor has to tell him couldn’t be any worse than all the other things Connor has told him before.

“I think I like someone.” Connor starts, lifting his gaze ever so slightly. “Specifically, I think I like you.”

Mitchell blinks at him slowly. His long and dark lashes falling to caress pale cheeks. “Come again?”

“Let me finish!” Connor begs although it doesn't look like Mitchell is capable of saying anything more. “I know that going from friends to more is a big step, a totally big step, but I like you. Like a lot. And we don’t have to do anything crazy! Just, maybe try to see where things can go from here. Maybe a date or two, or three? Hand holding? What do couples even do?”

The son of Hermes continues to ramble, a slight flush on his cheeks and his voice edging on hopeful but wavering on afraid. He keeps his gaze on Mitchell though. Poor, poor Mitchell, frozen from where he sits, his nicely drawn eyebrows raised high behind his fringe.

Connor ends his little speech and says, “Please say something.”

“I…” Mitchell lets out a shocked breath and shakes his head as if that will clear things up for him. “I don’t. Um. Where did this even come from?”

“I don’t know.” Connor admits running a frustrated hand through his tangled curls. “I was just sitting at breakfast this morning and you weren’t there, I kind of missed you. I don’t know why I would miss you since we were hanging out last night before curfew. And then Alice whipped out this magazine she stole from one of your siblings-”

“Stole?”

“Borrowed.” Connor corrects. “It will be returned, I promise.”

“Good.” Mitchell nods. “Continue about this magazine.”

“Well, it was a, um, one of those girly love-thingy magazines.”

“That doesn’t narrow down things for me, Connor.” Mitchell frowns thinking of the hundred dozen magazines his siblings practically hoarded in their cabin.

“I’ll show it to you when I get it back from her.” Connor promises. “Anyways, she started talking about pining. I was _not_ pining, by the way. But she thought that maybe I was, so she showed me the magazine. It had one of those, ‘how do you know you’ve got a crush’ test thingies.”

“Oh.” A smile crosses Mitchell’s face. “You took a Cosmopolitan exam to figure out whether or not you had a crush on me?”

Connor rolls his eyes. “Every other teen does it.”

“But Connor Stoll is not every other teen.” Mitchell laughs then composes himself. “Sorry, I just think it’s cute.”

“You think I’m cute?”

“Not exactly what I said but,” Mitchell purses his lips for a second and gives Connor a long look. “Yeah, I guess you’re kinda cute.”

The son of Hermes flashes him a smile that could rival the sun (sorry Apollo). Connor moves from his sitting position so that he’s kneeling with his elbows on the bed, hands reaching for Mitchell’s. “I know that you can literally have anyone you wanted in this camp. I’m just hoping that, maybe. I could, possibly….”

“Did you not burn anything for your dad before this talk?” Mitchell teases with a quirk of his brow. “You’re struggling with a lot of your words there.”

“I prayed for strength.” Connor admits, chuckling. “I thought I had everything I would want to tell you all ready in my head. It’s just, you kind of turn my brain to mush.”

Mitchell’s cheeks feel like they’re on fire. “You aren’t usually this sweet, Stoll.”

“You make me different, Mitchell. Like I’m a me I’ve never known before.” Connor says earnestly. “I thought, I thought it was just because you were really, really pretty. And I mean, yeah it’s definitely a factor. But, it’s also definitely much more than that.”

“Yeah?” Mitchell recovers just the slightest bit. “What do you like about me? Aside from being ‘really, really pretty’?”

“Do you have all day?” Connor jokes and is relieved when Mitchell laughs with him. “This is going a lot smoother than I thought it would be.”

“Talking to me?” Mitchell clarifies. “You talk to me all the time, what’s got you so nervous?”

“Well, I mean, yeah it’s always easy to talk to you. You’re a great listener. But it’s not everyday you confess your feelings for someone.” Connor frowns. “Or do you Aphrodite kids do that a lot?”

“Jamie does. Most of my siblings like to draw out the process, they are confessed to, they don’t do the confessing.” Mitchell says. “I’m a little different. I may be a child of the Goddess of Love and Beauty but I’m pretty reserve if you couldn’t tell.”

“I could tell.” Connor says, rubbing his fingers over Mitchell’s hands. “I can tell a lot of things, observing is necessary for the success of pranks. Research purposes and all that. But there’s also a lot of things I don’t know about you and if you’d let me, I’d love to find out about them.”

“I take back what I said. You really are the son of the God of Communication.” Mitchell marvels. “You have a way with words when you’re not overthinking it.”

“Aren’t I an absolute natural?” Connor laughs and sinks down so his chin is resting on the bed. “You’re really, very, very easy to talk to, Mitchell. It’s…”

“One of the things you like about me?”

“Well, yeah.”

Mitchell beams down at him and gently pushes away some of Connor’s wayward curls. “You know, I thought a Hermes kid would confess more differently. Fireworks, a mariachi band, a prank. The whole shebang!”

“I could have that arranged?” Connor sat up. “You just don’t seem like the type for grand gestures.”

“Rule number one in an Aphrodite kid’s world, there is no such thing as a grand gesture. Every gesture is appreciated.” Mitchell points a finger at Connor then tucks some of his hair over his ear; not realizing it was bright red at this point. “But this, this is nice too. Quiet. Private. I like it.”

“Good.” Connor beams then says again, “Good.”

“Good?” Mitchell echoes teasingly.

“Good.” Connor says with a nod then he laughs, unable to contain the absolute giddy feeling bubbling in his belly. “Does this mean you don’t mind? That I like you? Does this mean I have a chance?”

“Slow down!” Mitchell stops the questions with a hand over Connor’s mouth. “You said it yourself, we don’t have to rush into things. Maybe we can spend a little more time together. Get to know each other better?”

“That’s,” Connor swallowed around the grin on his face because it was starting to hurt. “That’s doable.”

“Good.” Mitchell smiles then gets off the bed, carefully helping Connor back to his feet as well. “I should get going. Drew and the others will need help wrangling the kids to dinner.”

“I should probably help Travis too.” Connor sighs as they both walk out the Hermes cabin and for a second he bites on his bottom lip then asks, “Wanna go for a walk by the lake after dinner?”

“If we can get away from our siblings.” Mitchell grinned, fussing with his fringe that a sudden gust of wind had messed up. His blue eyes seemed to sparkle and change color. “It’s a date.”

Connor waits long enough for Mitchell to disappear behind a couple of trees before he throws his fist into the air and unnecessarily shouts, “Fist pump!”

Mitchell hears this of course and laughs to himself, understanding the sentiment.

They had a date.


	2. The One With First Date

 

Connor is practically vibrating for the entirety of dinner and there was just no way his siblings weren’t picking up on it. Julia’s had to throw eight potato curls at him much to everybody else’s dismay as once she’d finished what was on her plate she’d resorted to stealing what was on theirs.

“This is good food!” Cecil tells his sister as he snatches a flying curl before it can hit anyone in the face and proceeds to eat it. “Throw the green stuff, no one likes those.”

Travis helpfully pushes said bowl of green stuff towards Julia who wrinkles her nose at it. “I wouldn’t have to throw anything if Connor wouldn’t stop pretending he’s an energizer bunny or something. It’s making me restless!”

Connor chews on his mouthful and looks at his baby sister. “What are you talking about?”

“She’s talking about the knee jiggling and the fact that you keep looking around to see if everyone’s finished eating.” Travis clarifies. “Which we are not, by the way. Tonight’s potato-pasta night. Some blessed soul managed to convince the nymphs to put out unhealthy good food. We’re going to be here for hours.

“Hours?” Connor repeats, something akin to horror on his face.

“Hours.” Travis repeats sagely.

Connor shoves his plate away, suddenly not hungry. It was as if the tiny butterflies fluttering in his stomach had just been shot down with razor sharp bullets. Poor butterflies didn't stand a chance.

Travis pushes his plate back towards him after gently persuading his siblings to mind themselves, not that their powers of persuasion and convincing worked on each other but they were given as much privacy as they could afford at the dining table. “I’ll bite. What did you and your pretty boy do when you ditched us during Arts and Crafts?”

“Don’t call him that.” Connor grumbles. “And we didn’t do anything. We were just hanging out.”

“Connor, if you were a dog your tail would have been wagging all over the place the moment you met up with us.” Travis crosses his arms over his chest and huffs a very confident breath. “And to quote Ferdinand, ‘tail don’t lie, brother’.”

Connor smiles a bit remembering Ferdinand; his entire cabin’s been obsessed with it ever since Leo managed to hook them up with a working television and DVD player. “I _am_ happy.”

“Wanna share with the class why?” Travis prods gently.

“Not yet.” Connor says.  
Travis looks like he wants to pry but for some reason doesn’t push, going back to his dinner and leaving Connor alone. The younger Stoll sibling took the silence gratefully, knowing that he could go to his big brother when he needed to. Or more accurately, when he was ready to.

He tries to be subtle when he steals glances of the Aphrodite cabin, looking away when he thinks he’s stared long enough. Mitchell has his back to him and his posture doesn’t give away whether or not he was feeling as excited as Connor was. It’s only when the members of Cabin Ten stood up and started making their way out of the dining pavilion that Connor’s whole body tenses up.

Travis gives him a really, really, really smug look as he bit into a potato curl before nodding his head. “Go.”

Connor doesn’t need to be told twice and he pushes his chair away from the table. “I owe you one!”

“I’ll collect when the need arises.” Travis promises him and waves him away. “Soon, probably. Katie and I haven’t gone on a date in a while.”

“Copy that.” Connor grins then makes his way out of the dining pavilion, jogging lightly towards the Lake. He makes sure to pass by the cabins so that Mitchell, or someone, would see him and he’d know that Connor would already be there waiting for him.

It takes a minute, or ten and Connor watches as his eighth rock skipped a solid distance before sinking underneath the water.

Mitchell makes an impressed noise. “That was pretty good.”

“I do it a lot.” Connor says as he stuffs his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, it was blue, the same color as his eyes that his mom had gotten him for Christmas the past year.

Mitchell cocks his head to the side, his fringe falling over his eyes again, which were now a shade of green. “So.”

“So…” Connor trails off biting on his bottom lip and decides to speak his mind. “What do people do on dates?”

Mitchel burst into a peal of laughter. “Oh gods, I didn’t think you’d ask that.”

Connor feels the back of his neck grow warm. “I’ve never really been on a date before.”

“Me neither.” Mitchell confesses.

“So, so this is a first-first.” Connor grins as they start making their way around the lake. “For both of us.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Mitchell follows him, their pace slow, absolutely no hurry. “Luckily for us, my siblings do nothing but talk about dates, both the good ones and the bad.”

“I’d like for this one to be good though.” Connor says hopefully.

“Oh don’t worry, it feels like it’s going to be.” Mitchell glances up at the sky. “If you could be anywhere else in the world right now, where would you be?”

Connor startles at the sudden segue, his eyebrows drawing together. “Is this a trick question?”

“No.” Mitchell laughs, fiddling with the beads on his camp necklace, that he actually wore as a bracelet. “I’m just trying to make conversation.”

“Oh.” Connor says feeling a little silly. He takes a deep breath, thinks about it, and then sighs. “This is going to sound like I’m totally sucking up to you, but I honestly can’t think of anywhere else I’d want to be.”

Mitchell makes a quiet noise. “What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?”

“Don’t I get to ask questions?” Connor teases.

Mitchell shoots him a look. “If you manage to beat me to it, I guess.”

“Challenge accepted.” Connor laughs. “What was your question again?”

“What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?”

“That’s hard. I’ve done a lot of things, mostly with Travis.” Connor clicks his tongue. “I can’t think of anything. There’s too many to choose from.”

“Oh.”

“You sound so surprised.” Connor gently pushes away a low hanging branch so neither of their heads run into it.

Mitchell clears his throat. “I was just expecting you to answer confessing to me. Being spontaneous, that is. That confession, I mean.”

“I may have only had some time to think about it but let me tell you that that required a heck of a lot of courage and thinking. There was absolutely nothing spontaneous about it.”

Mitchell smiles, then starts to say something else only for Connor to raise a hand. “Nope! It’s my turn to ask a question.”

The Aphrodite boy mimes zipping his lips together and gestures for Connor to continue.

“What is something I wouldn’t guess about you?” Connor playfully mimes unzipping Mitchell’s lips and makes a show of offering him an imaginary microphone to speak into.

Mitchell laughs at that, he’s been laughing a lot at the things Connor’s been doing and it feels great. Light, airy. Easy. The question, however, was not and he takes a moment to think on it. “I guess, um. This is a hard one.”

“I ask the hard questions.” Connor agrees.

Mitchell snaps his fingers. “I got it. I’m not very vocal about my feelings or my opinions on a lot of things. I mean, if I’m really passionate about something, I’ll make sure you know it, otherwise I can’t be bothered.”

“Really?” Connor stops walking.

“Really.” Mitchell joins him where he’s sat down on the grass. “My siblings aren’t as opinionated as Malcolm or maybe any other child of Athena about these mus-know facts for the good of all of their mother’s wisdom but Drew, Lacy, heck even Sophia can get really mouthy when it comes to what others might consider really minute things. Trivial things.”

“Trivial? Like what?”

“Mostly _fickle_ things that deal with love and relationships.” Mitchell rolls his eyes and picks at the blades of grass surrounding him. “I mean, we’re more than that obviously, but old habits die hard. We’re just naturally inclined to care about those things. Someone has to.”

“You guys are just as meddlesome as the rest of us.” Connor leans back on his hands and stares up at the sky. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

“You like chaos.”

“I like fun things.” Connor corrects him.

“Oh dear, what are you doing on a date with me? I’m not very fun.” Mitchell teases.

Connor gives him a look that takes Mitchell’s breath away. “I’m having a lot of fun right now.”

Mitchell tries to squash the returning butterflies in his stomach and ducks his head. “I’m having fun too.”

“Good.” Connor looks back up at the sky. “You know when I told you that you make me a different person? I like it. I like how I can be honest with you. Keeping up with Travis and the rest of my siblings can be exhausting. I have the time of my life, of course, but I like this too. Balances things out.”

“A Connor Stoll like I’ve never known.” Mitchell says slowly, back to fiddling with the beads of his bracelet. “And a Mitchell Reeves you’ve never known.”

“No pretenses?” Connor quirks a brow. “I know how you Aphrodite kids like to pretend you’re all bark and in reality you’re no bite.”

Mitchell returns the look with a raised brow of his own and Connor backtracks. “Not that I don’t think you can’t handle yourself! Just that, you guys are really caring. You just like to hide it behind being bossy and uptight.”

Mitchell brings his knees closer to his chest and wraps his arms around them. “It seems you already know a lot about me Connor Stoll.”

“But there’s so much more I don’t.” Connor smiles at him. “I can’t wait for you to tell me about it.”

“You know enough,” Mitchell stretches his limbs out then gets to his feet, offering Connor a hand and helping him stand up. “It’s almost curfew though. We should get back.”

“I’ll walk you back.” Connor offers and feels a hundred times lighter when Mitchell doesn't protest.

The Aphrodite cabin still has its lights on and there are some people around the campfire, the Apollo cabin’s last song of the night still had some notes in the air.

Mitchell stops on the steps leading up to his cabin and turns to Connor. “I had a good time, tonight.”

“Me too.”

“We should,” Mitchell clears his throat. “We should do this again.”

“Tomorrow night?” Connor backtracks. “Or maybe a walk before breakfast?”

Mitchell chuckles lowly. “You’re a lucky man if you think you can get an Aphrodite kid out of bed before eight in the morning, Stoll.”

“I consider myself very lucky.” Connor says but handles the curveball gracefully. “Maybe we can go for a walk on the beach before dinner instead.”

“Now you’re talking.” Mitchell laughs and smiles at him. “Goodnight Connor.”

Connor watches Mitchell enter the cabin, an equally happy smile on his own face. “Goodnight.”

He takes a deep breath and lets it out, and then he does it again. He’s only several steps away from the cabin, when the door flies open and Mitchell’s voice is calling out to him.

Connor turns in place. “Yeah?”

“It was good.” Mitchell tells him. “The date, I mean.”

Connor’s grin grows so big it hurt his face. “Good.”

He doesn’t even mind that Mitchell’s siblings start cooing and teasing him about being love-struck by an Aphrodite boy and when he makes it over to his own cabin, his siblings are whooping and yelling about how he was all grown up (despite being one of the oldest siblings) and yes they saw him walk Mitchell back, what an absolute gentleman!

Connor made sure to burn something expensive, classy, and tasteful when he woke up for Aphrodite the next morning.

The date was good.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely adore Connor and Mitchell and wish there were more fics of them. I never thought I was feeling so desperate until I was staring at a blank MS Word document. Gods, I hope someone actually liked this enough for me to continue since it's not the usual eventful Connor-pranks-Mitchell-to-get-his-attention fic.


End file.
